Pimps, Wimps, Studs, Thugs and Gentlemen: Essays on Media Images of Masculinity

by Elwood Watson

Overview

With essays ranging in topic from the films of Neil LaBute to the sexual politics of Major League Baseball, this diverse collection of essays examines the multi-faceted media images of contemporary masculinity from a variety of perspectives and academic disciplines. The book's first half focuses on the issue of racialized masculinity and its various manifestations, with essays covering, among other topics, the re-imagining of Asian American masculinity in Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow and the ever-present image of black male buffoonery in the neo-minstrel performances of VH1's Flavor of Love. The book's second half explores the issue of contemporary mediated performance and the cultural politics of masculinity, with essays focusing on popular media representations of men in a variety of gendered roles, from homemakers and househusbands to valorous war heroes and athletic demigods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786443055
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	07/28/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Elwood Watson is a professor of history and African American studies at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction     

PART I: RACIALIZED MEDIATED PERFORMANCE AND CONTEMPORARY MASCULINITY

1. The Dilemma of the Italian American Male
Marc DiPaolo     
2. Patrick Bateman as “Average White Male” in American Psycho
Daniel Mudie Cunningham     
3. Ambivalence, Desire and the Re-Imagining of Asian American Masculinity in Better Luck Tomorrow
Ruthann Lee     
4. The Black Interior, Reparations and African American Masculinity in The Wiz
Jesse Scott     
5. Flavor of Love and the Rise of Neo-Minstrelsy on Reality Television
Valerie Palmer-Mehta and Alina Haliliuc     
6. Jungle Fever: Bold, Beautiful and Unnecessarily Maligned Daryl A. Carter     
7. Celebrity Culture and Racial Masculinities: The Case of Will Smith
David Magill     

PART II: CONTEMPORARY MEDIATED PERFORMANCE AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF MASCULINITY

8. Constructions of Mathematical Masculinities in Popular Culture
Marie-Pierre Moreau, Heather Mendick and Debbie Epstein
9. Killing Off White Hegemonic Masculinity in Indian Killer
Jane E. Rose     
10. Narrative’s Role in Constructing Masculinities in We Were Soldiers
Bradley Smith     
11. Masculinity and Domesticity in A Home at the End of the World and Househusband
Helena Wahlstrom     
12. Anxious Male Domesticity and Gender Troubled Corrections
Kristin Jacobson     
13. Neil LaBute’s Bodies in Question
Marc Shaw     
14. O.J. Simpson: Tabloidized, Sexualized, Racialized and Largely Despised
Elwood Watson     
15. Major League Baseball and the Cultural Politics of Sexuality
Rachelle Sussman     

About the Contributors     
Index